We're in a pasuk in Tehilim 31,15
וַאֲנִ֤י ׀ עָלֶ֣יךָ בָטַ֣חְתִּי יְהֹוָ֑ה אָ֝מַ֗רְתִּי אֱלֹהַ֥י אָֽתָּה׃ /And I relied on You Hashem. I said, You are my God.
What exactly is David Hamelech saying? I saw two different explanations that connect this to the next pasuk, which says
בְּיָדְךָ֥ עִתֹּתָ֑י הַצִּ֘ילֵ֤נִי מִיַּד־א֝וֹיְבַ֗י וּמֵֽרֹדְפָֽי/in Your hands are my times. Save me from the hands of my enemies and those that chase me.
The first is a commentary on Tehilim from the sefer Me’ir Tehilot,written by Rav Meir Arama, the son of Rav Yitzhak Arama, who wrote Sefer Akeda. He says that in Your hand are my hours refers to people that are called Shomrim Hasha’ot. They look at the hours, they look into horoscopes, et cetera. That's why in the previous pasuk, David Hamelech says, “I hate those that look at the falsehoods.”
So, it’s talking about people that look into horoscopes and different hours that are the right hours, the wrong hours. They think that there are certain forces that are in control. But David Hamelech says, No, I rely on You. and my times are in Your hands. I'm not dependent on any type of horoscopes or signs or omens or the like.
He adds that when David Hamelech says, Alecha Batachti/I rely on You he's invoking the concept of Rabbi Hanina Ben Dosa, of En Od Milevado. There's nothing else but Hashem, not even the forces of black magic. The Gemara in Hulin daf ז tells the famous story of a witch who tried to cast a spell on Rav Hanina ben Dosa, and he said, En Od Milevado/there's nothing else but God. David Hamelech is telling us that that is the source of his bitachon. This is an interesting way of reading into the pasuk, and it’s brought down in the later commentaries, explaining where the power of bitachon comes from
How can I rely on Hashem and get what I want, so to say? They say it's based on the concept of En Od Milevado, which Rav Chaim Volozhin famously explains, that when a person focuses totally on Hashem in his mind, and annuls other forces of existence, then everything else, all the negative forces, disappear. That's what David Hamelech is teaching us here, according to the sefer Meir Tehilot.
וַאֲנִ֤י ׀ עָלֶ֣יךָ בָטַ֣חְתִּי יְהֹוָ֑ה אָ֝מַ֗רְתִּי אֱלֹהַ֥י אָֽתָּה׃
I rely on You,
The Radak says, with all those people out to get me, I still have You.. You are my Judge, not them. Not the police officer, not the doctor, not the lawyer, not the building department. They are not my judges. You are my judge. אֱלֹהַ֥י אָֽתָּה/I only have to deal with You. That is the source of David Hamelech’s bitachon, and the source for the next pasuk, the concept of, In Your hand, is my hours֥ בְּיָדְךָ֥ עִתֹּתָ֑י
The second explanation comes from a Rabbi Shabtai Horowitz. (There were two Shabtai Horowitz's and they were first cousins. One is more famous, better known as the Shelah HaKadosh. His first cousin, (their fathers were brothers), wrote a sefer called Shefah Tal on Tehilim (printed in Prague in 1612). He lived from 1565 to 1619, a very early rabbi)
He asks, what does it mean that עִתֹּתָ֑י בידך In Your hands are my seconds? He says, as is brought down in the sefer Tomar Devorah, that every second, Hashem is energizing a person; every second Hashem is pumping energy into a person. We don't have independent existence. If, for even a second, Hashem would stop supervising over a person, the person would cease to exist.
Therefore, David Hamelech says, My seconds are in Your hand. Every second You're pumping energy into me and therefore I'm relying on You. This is another source for En Od Milevado, and relying on Hashem. Of course, Hashem could change anything in a second. How could He not?
If Has v’Shalom there was a tumor, the tumor is not there because it was there before. The tumor is there because God wills to be there right now. All God has to do is, instead of saying Tumor, tumor, tumor, is say No tumor, no tumor. Therefore, Rabbi Horowitz explains, David Hamelech is saying, this is my source of bitachon.
These are two very deep concepts that are actually intertwined, and it’s the source for En Od Milevado. Why can God make anything happen? Because every second God is pumping energy into creation.
Why is that?
I’m getting a little philosophical, but this is an important fundamental- one of the real fundamentals of our belief, that God did not create the world Yesh M’Yesh/something from something which is a concept called Olam Kadmon/ World was always here. God created the world Yesh M’Eyin/something from nothing. What's the difference? People might think, “God is the Creator. Who cares if He took existing material or non-existing material?
The Nefesh HaChaim tells us the difference between a creator and a former is that a creator creates the material as well, and therefore he can't leave. If he leaves, everything ceases to exist. If someone makes a table, they can walk away from the table because they formed the table from existing material. Even if it lwas a magnificent, magnificent tower, like the Eiffel Tower, or the leaning tower of Pisa... I don't need the man that made it to still be there, and therefore he's not watching and controlling it.
But when it comes to Hashem, if He's not there, everything ceases to exist. Therefore, He needs to be constantly pumping energy. He is there, and that is the source for En Od Milevado.
These two concepts hinge on each other because God created the world something from nothing. And because He’s constantly pumping energy in, He’s constantly supervising and watching what's going on- so, of course, I can rely on Him. And if you think, I'm too small for Him to pay attention to me. What do you mean? How could He not be aware? He is energizing you right now! This is such an important point and people don't understand this.
It’s like man, who is a miniature world, and the soul, compared to God, is energizing that world. If your soul doesn't take care of the cell in your pinky, it's going to wither away. You need constant blood flow to every part of your body. Do you think your blood is not aware of where it's going? Of course it is. It knows exactly what's going on. So too, Hashem is in total awareness, because He is constantly pumping energy into creation. That’s the source for my bitachon in Him. Have a wonderful day.